I Am Legend (film)
I Am Legend is a 2007 film adaption of the novel of the same name. The film follows the story of Dr. Robert Neville, as he searches for a cure to a vicious, man-made disease. Plot In December 2009, military virologist Lieutenant Colonel Robert Neville (Will Smith), lost his wife Zoe (Salli Richardson) and daughter Marley (Willow Smith) in a helicopter accident during the chaotic quarantine of Manhattan. K.V. (Krippen Virus), a genetically-engineered variant of the measles virus meant as a cancer cure, mutates into a lethal strain as it spreads throughout the world, killing 90% of humanity (5.4 billion people). In September 2012, Neville is the last healthy human in New York City. Of the 600 million people worldwide, only 12 million were naturally immune to the virus. The rest either died of the virus or degenerated into hairless, aggressive beings referred to as "Darkseekers," who hunted the immune humans as prey. The Darkseekers are so named for hiding during daylight due to a painful intolerance of UV radiation. The infected show increased speed, agility, aggression and strength. They also have an increased metabolic rate, which consumes the infected with an overwhelming hunger, making them resort to cannibalism. Despite their primal behavior, the Darkseekers display some basic problem-solving intelligence and the capacity for organization. Neville's daily routine includes experimenting on infected rats to find a cure for the virus and trips through a decaying Manhattan to collect supplies from abandoned homes or hunt for the deer that have moved into the city. He also keeps vigil each day for a response to his continuous recorded AM radio broadcasts, which instruct any survivors to meet him at midday at the South Street Seaport. Neville's isolation is broken only by the companionship of his German Shepherd Sam and interaction with mannequins he has set up as patrons of a video store. When one of his rat experiments shows a promising treatment, Neville sets a snare trap and captures an infected woman. An enraged Darkseeker alpha male of the pack, attempts to rescue her, but is driven back by the sunlight. Neville notes this unusual behavior in a daily video log he records. Back in his laboratory, in the basement of his heavily fortified Washington Square Park home, Neville tries the new serum on the infected woman, seemingly without success. The next day, after finding one of his mannequins ("Fred") out in the street in front of Grand Central Terminal, he is caught in a snare trap and passes out. When he regains consciousness and manages to get free, it is dusk and Neville and Sam are attacked by a pack of infected dogs. Although Neville and Sam manage to kill the dogs, one bites Sam during the fight. Dogs are immune to the airborne strain but are susceptible to the contact virus strain. Neville brings Sam home and attempts to save the dog by injecting a strain of his serum. Neville sees a piece of Sam's fur fall, pupils dilate, and gums become inflamed. Neville is painfully forced to strangle Sam when the virus takes over and the dog attempts to maul him. The next night, overcome by grief and rage after burying his only friend, Neville attacks a group of Darkseekers with his UV light equipped SUV. Despite killing a large number of Darkseekers, they overwhelm Neville and nearly kill him before he is rescued by a pair of immune humans, a woman named Anna (Alice Braga) and a boy named Ethan (Charlie Tahan), who followed his radio broadcasts. Anna and Ethan take injured Neville back to his home, where Anna explains that they are making their way to a survivors' camp in Bethel, Vermont. Neville disputes that such a camp exists. The next night, the alpha male leads a mob of Darkseekers in an attack on the house. Anna was unaware of Neville's precautions in covering his scent outside the house, inadvertently allowing the Darkseekers to follow their trail and discover Neville's home. When the Darkseekers charge the house, Neville uses strong UV worklights to push the mob back, but the Darkseekers easily shatter the lights and continue their attack. Neville then uses claymore mines and manages to kill the first wave. However, Neville has no more defenses against the second wave of Darkseekers. Neville tries to find Anna and Ethan, but before he can, a Darkseeker enters and attacks Neville. The Darkseeker retreats upstairs and begins tearing a hole in the roof so other Darkseekers can get in. After Neville saves Anna and Ethan, they hear the Darkseekers climbing the house, so they retreat into the basement laboratory. They seal themselves in a reinforced plexiglass room with the infected woman, where they discover that Neville's treatment is in fact working: the subject looks much more human. The Darkseekers break in and the alpha male starts throwing himself against the plexiglass, cracking the material. Realizing that the last treatment has been successful, Neville draws a vial of the infected woman's blood and gives it to Anna before shutting them inside a coal chute hidden in the back of the lab. He uses an M67 hand grenade to wipe out the attackers at the cost of his own life and the healed Darkseeker woman's. Anna and Ethan are later seen driving in Vermont and stopping at the gated entrance to the survivors' colony, where Anna hands over the cure. In a voice-over, Anna claims that the survivors are Neville's legacy, as his fight for a cure became legend. Alternate ending Due to test audience's dislike of the film's original ending, several scenes were altered before the film's release, especially the standoff between Neville and the infected in his laboratory. Visual effects supervisor Janek Sirrs recounts the original ending, starting with the standoff. At that point, Neville's – and the audience's – assumptions about the nature of these creatures are shown to be incorrect. We see that they have actually retained some of their humanity. There is a very important moment between the alpha male and Neville. The alpha male slapped his hand on the glass and smeared it revealing a butterfly shaped imprint." Neville realizes that the alpha male is identifying the woman he was experimenting on by a butterfly tattoo, and that the alpha male wants her back. Neville puts his gun down and returns the infected woman. Neville and the alpha male then exchange stares; Neville apologizes to them, which the alpha male acknowledges before the infected leave. The final shot follows Neville, Anna, and Ethan as they drive away towards Vermont Cast *Will Smith as Dr. Robert Neville *Alice Braga as Anna *Charlie Tahan as Ethan *Emma Thompson as Dr. Alice Krippin *Salli Richardson as Zoe Neville *Willow Smith as Marley Neville *Dash Mihok as Alpha Male Darkseeker *Joanna Numata as Alpha Female Darkseeker *Darrell Foster as Mike *Abbey & Kona as Samantha, the dog *Pat Fraley as Voice of President of the United States *Mike Patton as Creature vocal effects Animated Comics The bonus features of the DVD release of the film include four animated comics from the graphic novel, I Am Legend: Awakening. Death As a Gift In Hong Kong, China, Jinghua Xu sits in her apartment at dawn, writing a note. She then leaves her apartment building, and goes out into the desolate ruins of a lifeless Hong Kong. She travels through the ruined city to a bridge, where she commits suicide by jumping from the ledge. The note she wrote is then seen in Jinghua's bloody lifeless hand, the writing on it translating, "My name is Jinghua Xu. I am immune. Beside the infected, I am the only survivor in Hong Kong." Isolation ADX Florence, Colorado, USA, the most secure prison facility in the United States. During the early stages of the KV outbreak, a prison guard enters warden Halloran's office. He informs him that all the prisoners have been loaded into the buses, "'cept him of course." The warden then signs a document at his desk. As prison buses carrying him, prisoners and guards are driving into the mountains, away from the prison, he says in a voiceover, "Even now, in this time of darkness, he does not deserve it!" The story then shifts to John Edward Lord, an imprisoned terrorist who was deliberately left behind at the prison to die, with no information on the outbreak. John is left alone in his cell with no food or water, screaming in rage in the deserted prison. At a military base in Fort Lee, Virginia, the general reports to the colonel that Colorado has been declared a hostile territory. It is then reported that contact with the convoy carrying Halloran has been lost, and the order is given for Colorado's entire power grid to be shut down. In ADX Florence, after three days locked in his cell, dehydrated and starving, as the Colorado power grid is shut down, the electronic lock for John's cell deactivates, freeing him. After drinking from the prison's water supply, John stocks up on ammunition. Planning to start a new life in the wilderness and finish his book, John flees the prison in a stolen SUV, and drives off into the sunset. In the night, while driving through the desert, John comes across the wrecked and overturned prison buses from ADX Florence, and the mangled corpse of Halloran. When John gets out of the SUV to investigate, a Darkseeker jumps down from atop one of the wrecks at him, prompting him to shoot it. It is then revealed that the wrecks are infested with Darkseekers. As John flees in his SUV from the Darkseeker hordes, he, narrating the story, explains that the act of terrorism he was imprisoned for was meant as patriotism; he believed that his beloved America had become corrupt and bankrupt, and that it needed to be destroyed and then reborn. John flees back to ADX Florence, pursued by the Darkseekers. The Darkseekers corner him, and John engages them in a last stand. Sacrificing the Few for the Many In the early stages of the KV outbreak, a refugee camp has been opened somewhere in central America, and is taking in patients infected with KV for treatment. As a young boy and girl watch from the outskirts of the camp, a military convoy arrives. The soldiers, dressed in NBC suits, open fire, massacring both the patients and personnel. A soldier then throws a grenade into the camp, destroying it. As the convoy leaves, the children stare in horror and grief at the camp's disintegrated remains. The girl then weeps tears of blood, revealing that she is infected. Shelter In New Delhi, India, during the outbreak of KV, Vatsala and her family are preparing to evacuate to a shelter. That night, Vatsala sneaks out of her home and into the chaotic streets of the city, and sees her boyfriend, Pritam, atop and overturned bus. As the two embrace, Pritam begs Vatsala to return to the shelter without him, and promises that he will be waiting when Vatsala comes out. Vatsala returns to her home, and, through a secret passage in the house, goes through the underground network of tunnels to the shelter. However, her father, fearing she may be infected, refuses to let her in for 48 hours, declaring that if Vatsala is ill, "We've already lost you." Vatsala swears to hersel to never forgive her father for this. Vatsala spends the next 48 hours waiting outside the shelter with food and water left for her. She begins to suffer the early symptoms of KV, but is in denial that she is infected. Eventually, Vatsala turns into a Darkseeker and tries to break into the shelter. The door to the shelter unexpectedly opens to reveal vicious-looking monsters instead of her family. In a fit of rage, Vatsala brutally kills the creatures, then, hungry, devours her dead family's remains. Remembering Pritam will be waiting for her, Vatsala goes out into the desolate city, to the overturned bus. There, she is greeted by the now-Darkseeker Pritam, and leads him back to the shelter for food. There, it is revealed that one of Vatsala's brothers is still alive, and that the creatures in the shelter Vatsala killed were actually her family, who she was hallucinating as monsters. Vatsala and Pritam, seeing the former's brother as a monster, attack and viciously kill him, unaware that he was actually Vatsala's brother. Category:I Am Legend Category:Movies